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PIRATED SCRIPTS
My Fellow Writers,
I just read a blockbuster script over the weekend. Huge action sequences. A great concept. A touch of history. Call it BRAVEHEART with pirates. Or PEARL HARBOR with pirates. Or TITANIC with pirates. Either way, there were lots and lots of pirates.
The script has made the studio rounds over the years, yet it still hasn't been made, despite the fact that two giant stars are attached to it. Sure, sure, you might say CUTTHROAT ISLAND and WATERWORLD have basically killed the market for pirate fare forever, but I think that enough time has passed to make this a viable genre again.
No, the reason that this particular script hasn't been made, in my humble and biased opinion, is that it simply lacks heart. Oh, it's not easy to tell upon first glance. Because the script is not only competent, it's really good in terms of plotting and premise - if not a bit terrifying to the people who worry about details such as budgets. Even the characters occasionally create those great movie moments.
In other words, you read this script and you know right away that it's a professional effort. More accurately, it's probably the effort of many, many professionals. And it's not that any of them did anything wrong. But the process of throwing writers, executives, and countless notes at the script has homogenized it to a stale level. Or at least emotionally stunted.
Luckily, I don't think it's beyond repair. In fact, I believe it holds great promise. It just needs someone to bring back what the process sapped from it - the passion and focus that made someone write up this script in the first place.
I took this as yet another reminder in my own life of why we all need to choose projects that we love. Because even the town's best writers and rewriters - and a cinematic premise, and big effects, and huge stars - don't add up to a great movie without the passion.
Anyway, I'll be rooting for this pirate movie. Oh, and my own script.
Avast ye,
Grady
P.S. I'm not sure what "Avast ye" means. Rest assured, there was none of that talk in this pirate movie. In fact, there was not one single parrot, either. Or a plank-walking. Though you can be sure that someone suggested both of these in a notes meeting somewhere along the way. This is why writers should be allowed to exile at least one executive or agent from each meeting with no penalty. It could be like jury selection - if someone says something particularly inane, we could expel them for cause and they couldn't hold it against us. I'm at EmailGrady@aol.com if you have further suggestions along these lines.
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